The
Daily Practice of Paintingby Gerhard Richter, et al
"Now that we do not have priests and philosophers anymore, artists
are the most important people in the world. . . . Art is wretched, cynical,
stupid, helpless, confusing." -- Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter, born in Dresden in 1932, is one of the foremost painters
of his generation. A great deal has been written about the bewildering
heterogeneity of his work over the past 30 years. Amazon.comPaperback - 272 pages Reprint edition (December 5, )MIT Press; ISBN: 026268084X

Gerhard
Richter: Drawings: 1964-1999by Dieter Schwarz, et al
This comprehensive survey presents more than 400 drawings, each with
descriptive captions and background text, as well as essays by Dieter Schwarz
and Birgit Pelzer that investigate this crucial component of one of the
20th century's most celebrated painters. Amazon.comHardcover - 320 pages Richter Verlag; ISBN: 3933807042

Gerhard
Richter: Florenceby Gerhard Richter, Dietmar Elger
For nearly 40 years, in a body of work that often looks as though it
was made by several different artists, Gerhard Richter has been examining
the ways we perceive reality and the effects of different forms of representation
on the viewer. "For me," he has said, "there is no difference between a
landscape and an abstract painting. In my view, the term 'realism' makes
no sense." Richter began painting on photographs in 1989 as a way of conflating
sets of opposing values: the tactile paint mark that is actually abstract
and the illusionistic depiction of real space created by the action of
light on film. The slender volume Gerhard Richter: Florence contains a
series of small square snapshots, mostly of the view outside Richter's
Cologne studio and street scenes in Florence, which he altered by applying
oil paint with a palette knife. In some images, he reinforces the intense
color of the photograph (vivid swipes of red and yellow on autumn foliage,
for example). In others, the paint nearly obliterates the scene (a milky
sheet of paint nearly wiping out a bridge reflected in the Arno River).
The artist, who originally conceived the project for a set of CDs (thus
the square format), painstakingly subverts normal expectations. The numerical
dates that serve as titles are unrelated to the dates when the photographs
were taken or painted. Even the size of the reproductions is ever-so-slightly
larger (rather than smaller) than the originals. But the visual pleasure
of the images doesn't rely on any theoretical underpinning. The rhythmic
blotting out of chunks of a view with bands of high-key color creates an
abstract beauty all the more jewel-like for being rendered in miniature.
--Cathy Curtis - Amazon.comHardcover: 144 pagesHatje Cantz Publishers; ISBN: 3775710590; (September
15, )

Abstract
Painting 825-II : 69 Detailsby Gerhard Richter, Hans Ulrich Obrist (Contributor)
69 details from a single abstract painting by German artist Gerhard
Richter presented as a work of art in its own right.
(Hardcover)